Who Do You Blame?
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

Botched cut-rate operations at plastic surgery clinics operated by FELONS in Florida cost 13 women their lives – but state law can do nothing to close down the lethal businesses

• USA Today investigated a slew of deaths and injuries linked to Florida plastic surgery clinics 
• At least four were founded or operated by people with felony convictions 
• A loophole in Florida law that punishes doctors who own clinics where patients have died lets business owners with criminal records keep their clinics open 
• Four attempts to pass laws requiring criminal background checks for people opening plastic surgery clinics have failed and a fifth is under consideration 

At least 13 women have died after undergoing plastic surgery at Florida clinics founded by felons, a new investigation reveals. 

They came for discounted butt lifts and tummy tucks from surgeons in world-renowned South Beach, Florida. 

But these women were left with complications that cost them their lives, after operations that were performed by surgeons hired by for felons, USA Today’s investigation revealed.  

It dug into the sordid histories of four clinics founded by people had been convicted of crimes – mostly financial ones – but were allowed to run cosmetic surgery shops that crowded patients in and cut corners to make more money more quickly. 

The clinics, where women died of fat embolisms, deadly mixtures of sedatives and puncture wounds to organs, were cited for these deaths and for dirty operating rooms. 

Yet they were never shut down. Blindspots in regulatory oversight and hamstrung lawmakers allowed these facilities to continue operating despite the littany of problems – in one case, even while the owner was waiting for his prison sentence to start. 

Porche Campbell (left) and Nicola Mason (right) were both left with horrible scars after undergoing plastic surgeries at Spectrum Aesthetics, one of at least four clinics in Florida owned or operated by people with criminal records and where patients have died 

The clinics that USA Today investigated were New Life Plastic Surgery, Strax Rejuvenation, Spectrum Aesthetics and Seduction by Jardon, all located less than 20 miles from Florida’s Southern, sunny beaches.  

Jeffry Davis co-founded Strax after he was convicted for federal bank fraud and tax evasion in 1995. 

During eight years that its two clinics were in operation, eight women who underwent operations died there.   

Two women died there after they were given powerful opioids or left unsupervised while on potent sedatives, US  Today reported. 

All eight deaths were reported and documented, so Florida health officials knew about them but did nothing.  

USA Today’s investigation found the same pair of clinics were written up 45 times operating rooms that were filthy, for lacking any documents to show patients had been properly examined to be cleared for surgery and for shoddy equipment. 

At both Strax Rejuvenation and New Life Plastic Surgery (pictured), fat embolisms killed women who underwent botched, dangerous Brazilian butt lifts 

Strax could turn around patients quickly and pad its profit margins by using doctors who worked as contractors on commission only. 

Half of them had faced malpractice or other charges. 

And by 2013, 13 negligence lawsuits had been filed by Strax patients, according to the investigation. As a result, Strax’s parent company owed the complainants $1.5 million – enough to bankrupt it. 

But there was no law in Florida that required the clinic to shutter as a result. 

Florida does have a law specifically directed at doctors who own and operate clinics. If their clinics are mired in malpractice accusations, their facilities can be shut down as their medical licenses are called into question. 

However, if there’s no medical degree, there’s no measure, so the state has no recourse to punish business owners who aren’t doctors. 

Juan Hernandes, (pictured in his mugshot) was convicted in a $1.2 million Medicare billing fraud case while running Spectrum Aesthetics 

And the state only prohibits felons from getting business licenses in very specific circumstances – thresholds not met by the Florida clinic owners.  

Fat injections made too far into the butt muscles migrated into the bloodstreams of some women there and killed them. 

‘There is a gap,’ Christopher Nuland, a health care lawyer who worked on related legislation told USA Today. 

‘No one anticipated that non-physicians would take over clinics and be largely immune to these good laws.’ 

After lawmakers caught wind of the Strax travesty, they attempted to pass legislation to fill that gap, but it failed.   

Meanwhile, more clinics were starting with Strax-like structures.  

Juan Hernandes co-founded Spectrum Aesthetics in 2012. He and his business partner, Evelyn Parrado were charged with fraudulently billing $1.2 million to Medicare for drugs from the pharmacy they ran together. 

Under the impression that Spectrum was staffed and run by board certified surgeons, the court allowed Hernandes to continue to operate the clinic.  

He employed and oversaw the physicians there, including Dr Osakatukei Omulepu, who had failed his board exams multiple times, and never been board certified in plastic surgery. 

Yet the unqualified surgeon performed Brazilian butt lifts, the most dangerous cosmetic operation. 

During two such operations, he punctured or stabbed organs including the liver and small intestine. 

Nicola Mason went to Spectrum for a Brazilian butt lift, but claims the doctor there gave her the wrong operation – a tummy tuck – and left her with severe scarring (pictured) 

The same doctor at Spectrum (pictured) punctured the organs of at least two other women during Brazilian butt lifts and was not licensed in plastic surgery

A surgical sponge was left inside Porche Campbell, 40, when she had a procedure there.  

Nicola Mason, 46, came to Spectrum from Maryland for a Brazilian butt lift. 

But, a complaint she filed against Dr Omulepu claims he performed a tummy tuck – the wrong surgery – on her, instead. 

And the unwanted tummy tuck she got left Mason with large scars on the side of her abdomen. 

Dr Omulepu’s records claim that he determined that Mason wasn’t a good candidate for  butt lift, according to USA TODAY, and that the two instead agreed upon her tummy tuck. 

Last year, Adianet Galvan visited New Life Plastic Surgery for the same risky procedure: a Brazilian butt lift. 

She suffered the same fate countless others have under the knife. Galvan died of a fat embolism, according to USA Today’s analysis of her autopsy records. 

‘I never thought my daughter would come to this country and die at the age of 30,’ her mother, Arelys Gonzalez told USA Today.  

Seduction ran four clinics, including Aventura, which was run by Rayner Aguiar, a 36-year-old who’d been convicted on financial charges before taking the facility over.

 Adianet Galvan underwent a Brazilian butt lift at a Seduction clinic at age 30 (left). She suffered a fat embolism and died in the hospital (right), according to her autopsy report

Pictured: the mansion where the Jardon family, which owns four Seduction clinics, lives

That clinic was started by Santiago Borges. The 54-year-old wore flashy watches, owned oats and drove a Mercedes. He was convicted for a $70 million Medicare scam before he began peddling butt lifts, USA Today reported. 

Seduction by Jardon, too, has a felon at its foundation. Its president, Gretel Jardon, is married to Rayner Aguiar, a 36-year-old who was convicted of mortgage fraud after over-stating the value of his mansion. 

Raner Aguiar runs the Seduction clinic in Aventura. He was convicted of mortgage fraud 

At one of its four clinics, another woman died of a fat embolism, after going under the knife in the hands of a familiar name: Dr Omulepu. 

At a branch in Aventura that Aguiar was managing, Crystal Call had flown in from New York, and was one of 11 patients scheduled for an operation with the same doctor in 2017.  

She told USA Today she was shocked to find a crowded waiting room when she arrived for her pre-operative exam.

Hours after she was scheduled for surgery, Call was on the verge of death when her mother – not a doctor – found her pale, unconscious and utterly still. 

It was thanks to the quick actions of her mother Maria Basham, that Call was rushed to an area hospital where she was diagnosed with shock and kidney failure, USA Today reported. 

She had to be given an emergency blood transfusion and still suffers complications, including ‘numbness’ according to USA Today. 

‘In an hour, she would have been dead,’ Basham told the outlet. 

It was Crytal Call’s (left) mother, Maria Basham (right) who saved her life when a surgeon at the Aventura Seduction clinic left her unconscious and unresponsive after an operation 

For the fourth time, US legislators proposed a law to require background checks into the potential criminal histories of plastic surgery clinics last year. For the fourth time it failed. 

According to USA Today, a fifth bill is now up for debate, but already it’s ‘been softened,’ the report authors write. 

‘Lawmakers removed a mandate that the state screen all plastic surgery center owners for criminal records because of concerns over the cost of carrying out the checks.’ 

Speaking to USA Today, Dr Stevens, president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery called the fact that the bills had failed ‘unconscionable.’ 

‘How the heck can you leave the lives of patients to a medical clinic that is run by convicted felons? 

‘[If lawmakers] fail to step in and help, then, I’m sorry, they have the blood on their collective hands.’ 

DailyMail.com contacted all four clinics for comment. None of them had responded at time of publication.